MARÄ€GHA,a town of Persia in the province of Azerbaijan, on the Safi River, in 37° 23′ N., 46° 16′ E., 80 m. from Tabriz. Pop. about 16,000. It is pleasantly situated in a narrow valley running nearly north and south at the eastern extremity of a well-cultivated plain opening towards Lake Urmia, which lies 18 m. to the west. The town is encompassed by a high wall ruined in many places, and has four gates. Two stone bridges in good condition, said to have been constructed during the reign of Hulaku Khan (1256-1265), and since then several times repaired, lead over the Safi River on the western side of the town. The place is surrounded by extensive vineyards and orchards, all well watered by canals led from the river, and producing great quantities of fruit for exportation to Russia. On a hill west of the town are the remains of a famous observatory (rasad) constructed under the direction of the great astronomer Nasr-ud-din of Tus. The hills west of the town consist of horizontal strata of sandstone covered with irregular pieces of basalt and the top of the hill on which the observatory stood was made level by taking away the basalt. The building, which no doubt served as a citadel as well, enclosed a space of 380 yds. by 150, and the foundations of the walls were 41â„2to 5 ft. in thickness. The marble, which is known throughout Persia as MarÄgha marble, is a travertine obtained at the village of Dashkesen (Turkish for“stone-breakersâ€) about 30 m. north-west from Maragha. It is deposited from water, which bubbles up from a number of springs in the form of horizontal layers, which at first are thin crusts and can easily be broken, but gradually solidify and harden into blocks with a thickness of 7 to 8 in. It is a singularly beautiful substance, being of pink, greenish, or milk-white colour, streaked with reddish, copper-coloured veins. An analysis of the marble gave the following result: calcium carbonate, 90.93; magnesium, .75; iron, 1.37; manganese, 4.34; calcium sulphate, 2.30; calcium phosphate, .24 (R. T. Günther,Geog. Journ.xiv. 517).
MARANHÃO,orMaranham(Span.Marañon, the name given to the upper Amazon), a northern state of Brazil, bounded N. by the Atlantic, E. and S.E. by Piauhy, S.W. and W. by Goyaz and Pará. Area, 177,569 sq. m.; pop. (1890), 430,854; (1900), 499,308. The coastal zone and the north-west corner of the state belong to the Amazon valley region, being a heavily forested plain traversed by numerous rivers. The eastern and southern parts, however, belong to the lower terraces of the great Brazilian plateau, broken by eroded river-courses between which are high open plains. There are no true mountain ranges in Maranhão, those indicated on the maps being only plateau escarpments marking either its northern margin or the outlines of river valleys. The climate is hot, and the year is divided into a wet and dry season, extreme humidity being characteristic of the former. The heat, however, is greatly modified on the coast by the south-east trade winds, and the climate is generally considered healthy, though beri-beri and eruptive diseases are common on the coast. The coast itself is broken and dangerous, there being many small indentations, which are usually masked by islands or shoals. The largest of these are the Bay of Tury-assú, facing which is the island of São João, and several others of small size, and the contiguous bays of São Marcos and São José, between which is the large island of Maranhão. The rivers of the state all flow northward to the Atlantic and a majority of them have navigable channels. The Parnahyba forms the eastern boundary of Maranhão, but it has one large tributary, the Balsas, entirely within the state. A part of the western boundary is formed by the Tocantins, and another part by the Gurupy, which separates the state from Pará. The principal rivers of the state are the Maracassumé and Tury-assú, the Mearim and its larger tributaries (the Pindaré, Grajahú, Flôres and Corda) which discharge into the Bay of São Marcos, and the Itapicurú and Monim which discharge into the Bay of São José. Like the Amazon, the Mearim has apororocaor bore in its lower channel, which greatly interferes with navigation. There are a number of small lakes in the state, some of which are, apparently, merely reservoirs for the annual floods of the rainy season.
The principal industries of Maranhão are agricultural, the river valleys and coastal zone being highly fertile and being devoted to the cultivation of sugar-cane, cotton, rice, coffee, tobacco, mandioca and a great variety of fruits. The southern highlands, however, are devoted to stock-raising, which was once an important industry. Troublesome insects, vampire bats, and the failure to introduce new blood into the degenerated herds, are responsible for its decline. Agriculture has also greatly declined, the state producing for export only a comparatively small quantity of cotton, rice, sugar andaguardiente. Besides São Luiz, the capital of the state, the principal towns, with the population of their municipal districts in 1890, are: Caxias (19,443), Alcantara (4730), Carolina (7266), Grajahú (11,704), Tury-assú (8983) and Viana (9965).
The coast of Maranhão was first discovered by Pinzon in 1500, but it was included in the Portuguese grant of captaincies in 1534. The first European settlement, however, was made by a French trading expedition under Jacques Riffault, of Dieppe, in 1594, who lost two of his three vessels in the vicinity of the island of Maranhão, and left a part of his men on that island when he returned home. Subsequently Daniel de la Rivardière was sent to report on the place, and was then commissioned by the French crown to found a colony on the island; this was done in 1612. The French were expelled by the Portuguese in 1615, and the Dutch held the island from 1641 to 1644. In 1621 Ceará, Maranhão and Pará were united and called the “Estado do Maranhão,†which was made independent of the southern captaincies. Ceará was subsequently detached, but the “state†of Maranhão remained independent until 1774, when it again became subject to the colonial administration of Brazil. Maranhão did not join in the declaration of independence of 1822, but in the following year the Portuguese were driven out by Admiral Lord Cochrane and the province became a part of the new empire of Brazil.
MARANO(accursed or banned), a term applied to Jewish Christians in Spain. Converted to Roman Catholicism under compulsion, these “New Christians†often continued to observe Jewish rites in their homes, as the Inquisition records attest. It was in fact largely due to the Maranos that the Spanish Inquisition was founded. The Maranos made rapid strides in prosperity, and “accumulated honours, wealth and popular hatred†(Lea,History of the Spanish Inquisition, i. 125). This was one of the causes that led to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Maranos emigrated to various countries, but many remained in the Peninsula. Subsequently distinguished individuals left home for more tolerant lands. The Jewish community in London was refounded by Maranos in the first half of the 17th century. Hamburg commerce, too, owed much to the enterprise of Portuguese Maranos. In Amsterdam many Maranos found asylum; Spinoza was descended from such a family. There are still remnants of Marano families in Portugal.
See Lea,loc. cit.and elsewhere; see indexs.v.“New Christianâ€; Graetz,History of the Jews, Eng. trans. see indexs.v.“Marranosâ€; M. Kayserling, inJewish Encyclopedia, viii. 318 seq.; and for the present dayJewish Quarterly Review, xv. 251 seq.
See Lea,loc. cit.and elsewhere; see indexs.v.“New Christianâ€; Graetz,History of the Jews, Eng. trans. see indexs.v.“Marranosâ€; M. Kayserling, inJewish Encyclopedia, viii. 318 seq.; and for the present dayJewish Quarterly Review, xv. 251 seq.
(I. A.)
MARASH(anc.Germanicia-Marasion), the chief town of a sanjak of the same name in the Aleppo vilayet, altitude 2600 ft. situated E. of the Jihan river, at the foot of Mt Taurus. The sanjak lies almost wholly in Mt Taurus, and includes the Armenian town of Zeitun. Marash is prosperous, and has a large trade in Kurd carpets and embroideries. The climate is good, except in summer. Of the population (50,000) about half are Turkish-speaking Armenians. There are a college, church and schools belonging to the American mission, a native Protestant church and a Jesuit establishment. The site, which lies near the mouths of the three main passes over the eastern Taurus—viz. those descending from Geuksun (Cocysus), Albistan-Yarpuz (Arabissus), and Malatia (Melitene)—is shown to have had early importance, not only by the occurrence ofMarasiin Assyrian inscriptions, but by the discovery of several “Hittite†monuments on the spot. These, said to have been unearthed, for the most part, near the Kirk Geuz spring above the modern town, are now in Constantinople and America, and include an inscribed lion, once built into the wall of the citadel known in the middle ages as al-Marwani, and severalstelae. No more is known of the place until it appears as Germanicia-Caesarea, striking imperial coins with the head of L. Verus (middle of 2nd cent.A.D.). The identification of Marash with Germanicia has been disputed, but successfully defended by Sir W. M. Ramsay; and it is borne out by the Armenian nameKermanig, which has been given to the place since at least the 12th century. Before the Roman period Marash doubtless shared the fortunes of the Seleucid kingdom of Commagene.Germanicia-Marasionplayed a great part in Byzantine border warfare: Heraclius was there inA.D.640; but before 700 it had passed into Saracen hands and been rebuilt by the caliph Moawiya. During the 8th and 9th centuries, when the direct pass from Cocysus came into military use, Marasion (the older name had returned into general use) was often the Byzantine objective and was more than once retaken; but after 770, when Mansur incorporated it in “Palestine†it remained definitely in Moslem power and was refortified by Harun-al-Rashid. It was seized by the crusaders after their march across Mt Taurus,A.D.1097, became an important town of Lesser Armenia and was taken by the Seljuks in 1147. In the 16th century it was added to the Osmanli Empire by Selim I. Marashpassed with the rest of Syria into Egyptian hands in 1832, and in 1839 received fugitives from the defeat of Nizib, among whom was Moltke. Ibrahim Pasha was encamped near it when directed by his father, at the bidding of the powers, to stay his further advance. Since its reversion to Ottoman power (1840) the history of Marash has been varied only by Armenian troubles, largely connected with the fortunes of Zeitun, for the reduction of which place it has more than once been used as a base. There was less disturbance there in 1895-1896 than in other north Syrian towns.
(D. G. H.)
MARAT, JEAN PAUL(1743-1793), French revolutionary leader, eldest child of Jean Paul Marat, a native of Cagliari in Sardinia, and Louise Cabrol of Geneva, was born at Boudry, in the principality of Neuchâtel, on the 24th of May 1743. His father was a designer, who had abandoned his country and his religion, and married a Swiss Protestant. On his mother’s death in 1759 Marat set out on his travels, and spent two years at Bordeaux in the study of medicine, whence he moved to Paris, where he made use of his knowledge of his two favourite sciences, optics and electricity, to subdue an obstinate disease of the eyes. After some years in Paris he went to Holland, and then on to London, where he practised his profession. In 1773 he made his first appearance as an author with aPhilosophical Essay on Man. The book shows a wonderful knowledge of English, French, German, Italian and Spanish philosophers, and directly attacks Helvetius, who had in hisDe l’espritdeclared a knowledge of science unnecessary for a philosopher. Marat declares that physiology alone can solve the problems of the connexion between soul and body, and proposes the existence of a nervous fluid as the true solution. In 1774 he publishedThe Chains of Slavery, which was intended to influence constituencies to return popular members, and reject the king’s friends. Its author declared later that it procured him an honorary membership of the patriotic societies of Carlisle, Berwick and Newcastle. He remained devoted to his profession, and in 1775 published in London a littleEssay on Gleets, and in Amsterdam a French translation of the first two volumes of hisEssay on Man. In this year he visited Edinburgh, and on the recommendation of certain Edinburgh physicians was made an M. D. of St Andrews. On his return to London he published anEnquiry into the Nature, Cause, and Cure of a Singular Disease of the Eyes, with a dedication to the Royal Society. In the same year there appeared the third volume of the French edition of theEssay on Man, which reached Ferney, and exasperated Voltaire, by its onslaught on Helvetius, into a sharp attack which only made the young author more conspicuous. His fame as a clever doctor was now great, and on the 24th of June 1777, the comte d’Artois, afterwards Charles X. of France, made him by brevet physician to his guards with 2000 livres a year and allowances.
Marat was soon in great request as a court doctor among the aristocracy; and even Brissot, in hisMémoires, admits his influence in the scientific world of Paris. The next years were much occupied with scientific work, especially the study of heat, light and electricity, on which he presented memoirs to the Académie des Sciences, but the academicians were horrified at his temerity in differing from Newton, and, though acknowledging his industry, would not receive him among them. His experiments greatly interested Benjamin Franklin, who used to visit him and Goethe always regarded his rejection by the academy as a glaring instance of scientific despotism. In 1780 he had published at Neuchâtel aPlan de législation criminelle, founded on the principles of Beccaria. In April 1786 he resigned his court appointment. The results of his leisure were in 1787 a new translation of Newton’sOptics, and in 1788 hisMémoires académiques, ou nouvelles découvertes sur la lumière.
His scientific life was now over, his political life was to begin; in the notoriety of that political life his great scientific and philosophical knowledge was to be forgotten, the high position he had given up denied, and he himself scoffed at as an ignorant charlatan, who had sold quack medicines about the streets of Paris, and been glad to earn a few sous in the stables of the comte d’Artois. In 1788 the notables had met, and advised the assembling of the states-general. The elections were the cause of a flood of pamphlets, of which one,Offrande à la patrie, was by Marat, and, though now forgotten, dwelt on much the same points as the famous brochure of the Abbé Siéyès:Qu’est-ce que le tiers état?When the states-general met, Marat’s interest was as great as ever, and in June 1789 he published a supplement to hisOffrande, followed in July byLa constitution, in which he embodies his idea of a constitution for France, and in September by hisTableau des vices de la constitution d’Angleterre, which he presented to the Assembly. The latter alone deserves remark. The Assembly was at this time full of anglomaniacs, who desired to establish in France a constitution similar to that of England. Marat had seen that England was at this time being ruled by an oligarchy using the forms of liberty, which, while pretending to represent the country, was really being gradually mastered by the royal power. His heart was now all in politics; and he decided to start a paper. At first appeared a single number of theMoniteur patriote, followed on the 12th of September by the first number of thePubliciste parisien, which on the 16th of September took the title ofL’Ami du peupleand which he edited, with some interruptions, until the 21st of September 1792.
The life of Marat now becomes part of the history of the French Revolution. From the beginning to the end he stood alone. He was never attached to any party; the tone of his mind was to suspect whoever was in power. About his paper, the incarnation of himself, the first thing to be said is that the man always meant what he said; no poverty, no misery or persecution, could keep him quiet; he was perpetually crying, “Nous sommes trahis.†Whoever suspected any one had only to denounce him to theAmi du peuple, and the denounced was never let alone till he was proved innocent or guilty. Marat began by attacking the most powerful bodies in Paris—the Constituent Assembly, the ministers, the corps municipal, and the court of the Châtelet. Denounced and arrested, he was imprisoned from the 8th of October to the 5th of November 1789. A second time, owing to his violent campaign against Lafayette, he narrowly escaped arrest and had to flee to London (Jan. 1790). There he wrote hisDénonciation contre Necker, and in May dared to return to Paris and continue theAmi du peuple. He was embittered by persecution, and continued his vehement attacks against all in power, and at last, after the day of the Champs du Mars (July 17, 1790), against the king himself. All this time he was in hiding in cellars and sewers, where he was attacked by a horrible skin disease, tended only by the woman Simonne Evrard, who remained true to him. The end of the Constituent Assembly he heard of with joy and with bright hopes for the future, soon dashed by the behaviour of the Legislative Assembly. When almost despairing, in December 1791, he fled once more to London, where he wrote hisEcole du citoyen. In April 1792, summoned again by the Cordeliers’ Club, he returned to Paris, and published No. 627 of theAmi. The war was now the question, and Marat saw clearly that it was to serve the purposes of the Royalists and the Girondins, who thought of themselves alone. Again denounced, Marat had to remain in hiding until the 10th of August. The early days of the war being unsuccessful, the proclamation of the duke of Brunswick excited all hearts; who could go to save France on the frontiers and leave Paris in the hands of his enemies? Marat, like Danton, foresaw the massacres of September. After the events of the 10th of August he took his seat at the commune, and demanded a tribunal to try the Royalists in prison. No tribunal was formed, and the massacres in the prisons were the inevitable result. In the elections to the Convention, Marat was elected seventh out of the twenty-four deputies for Paris, and for the first time took his seat in an assembly of the nation. At the declaration of the republic, he closed hisAmi du peuple, and commenced, on the 25th, a new paper, theJournal de la république française, which was to contain his sentiments as its predecessor had done, and to be always on the watch. In the Assembly Marat had no party; he would always suspect and oppose the powerful, refuse power for himself. After the battle of Valmy, Dumouriez was thegreatest man in France; he could almost have restored the monarchy; yet Marat did not fear to denounce him in placards as a traitor.
His unpopularity in the Assembly was extreme, yet he insisted on speaking on the question of the king’s trial, declared it unfair to accuse Louis for anything anterior to his acceptance oftheconstitution, and though implacable towards the king, as the one man who must die for the people’s good, he would not allow Malesherbes, the king’s counsel, to be attacked in his paper, and speaks of him as a “sage et respectable vieillard.†The king dead, the months from January to May 1793 were spent in an unrelenting struggle between Marat and the Girondins. Marat despised the ruling party because they had suffered nothing for the republic, because they talked too much of their feelings and their antique virtue, because they had for their own virtues plunged the country into war; while the Girondins hated Marat as representative of that rough red republicanism which would not yield itself to a Roman republic, with themselves for tribunes, orators and generals. The Girondins conquered at first in the Convention, and ordered that Marat should be tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal. But their victory ruined them, for on the 24th of April Marat was acquitted, and returned to the Convention with the people at his back. The fall of the Girondins on the 31st of May was a triumph for Marat. But it was his last. The skin disease he had contracted in the subterranean haunts was rapidly closing his life; he could only ease his pain by sitting in a warm bath, where he wrote his journal, and accused the Girondins, who were trying to raise France against Paris. Sitting thus on the 13th of July he heard in the evening a young woman begging to be admitted to see him, saying that she brought news from Caen, where the escaped Girondins were trying to rouse Normandy. He ordered her to be admitted, asked her the names of the deputies then at Caen, and, after writing their names, said, “They shall be soon guillotined,†when the young girl, whose name was Charlotte Corday (q.v.), stabbed him to the heart.
His death caused a great commotion at Paris. The Convention attended his funeral, and placed his bust in the hall where it held its sessions. Louis David painted “Marat Assassinated,†and a veritable cult was rendered to the Friend of the People, whose ashes were transferred to the Panthéon with great pomp on the 21st of September 1794—to be cast out again in virtue of the decree of the 8th of February 1795.
Marat’s name was long an object of execration on account of his insistence on the death penalty. He stands in history as a bloodthirsty monster, yet in judging him one must remember the persecutions he endured and the terrible disease from which he suffered.
Besides the works mentioned above, Marat wrote:Recherches physiques sur l’électricité, &c.(1782);Recherches sur l’électricité médicale(1783);Notions élémentaires d’optique(1764);Lettres de l’observateur Bon Sens à M. de M. ... sur la fatale catastrophe des infortunés Pilatre de Rozier et Romain, les aéronautes et l’aérostation(1785);Observations de M. l’amateur Avec à M. l’abbé Sans ... &c., (1785);Éloge de Montesquieu(1785), published 1883 by M. de Bresetz;Les Charlatans modernes, ou lettres sur le charlatanisme académique(1791);Les Aventures du comte Potowski(published in 1847 by Paul Lacroix, the “bibliophile Jacobâ€);Lettres polonaises(unpublished). Marat’s works were published by A. Vermorel,Å’uvres de J. P. Marat, l’ami du peuple, recueillies et annotées(1869). Two of his tracts, (1)On Gleets, (2)A Disease of the Eyes, were reprinted, ed. J. B. Bailey, in 1891.See A. Vermorel,Jean Paul Marat(1880); François Chévremont,Marat: esprit politique, accomp. de sa vie(2 vols., 1880); Auguste Cabanès,Marat inconnu(1891); A. Bougeait,Marat, l’ami du peuple(2 vols., 1865); M. Tourneux,Bibliographie de l’histoire de Paris pendant la révolution française(vol. ii., 1894; vol. iv., 1906), and E. B. Bax, J. P. Marat (1900).The Correspondance de Marathas been edited with notes by C. Villay (1908).
Besides the works mentioned above, Marat wrote:Recherches physiques sur l’électricité, &c.(1782);Recherches sur l’électricité médicale(1783);Notions élémentaires d’optique(1764);Lettres de l’observateur Bon Sens à M. de M. ... sur la fatale catastrophe des infortunés Pilatre de Rozier et Romain, les aéronautes et l’aérostation(1785);Observations de M. l’amateur Avec à M. l’abbé Sans ... &c., (1785);Éloge de Montesquieu(1785), published 1883 by M. de Bresetz;Les Charlatans modernes, ou lettres sur le charlatanisme académique(1791);Les Aventures du comte Potowski(published in 1847 by Paul Lacroix, the “bibliophile Jacobâ€);Lettres polonaises(unpublished). Marat’s works were published by A. Vermorel,Å’uvres de J. P. Marat, l’ami du peuple, recueillies et annotées(1869). Two of his tracts, (1)On Gleets, (2)A Disease of the Eyes, were reprinted, ed. J. B. Bailey, in 1891.
See A. Vermorel,Jean Paul Marat(1880); François Chévremont,Marat: esprit politique, accomp. de sa vie(2 vols., 1880); Auguste Cabanès,Marat inconnu(1891); A. Bougeait,Marat, l’ami du peuple(2 vols., 1865); M. Tourneux,Bibliographie de l’histoire de Paris pendant la révolution française(vol. ii., 1894; vol. iv., 1906), and E. B. Bax, J. P. Marat (1900).The Correspondance de Marathas been edited with notes by C. Villay (1908).
(R. A.*)
MARATHI(properlyMarÄthÄ«),1the name of an important Indo-Aryan language spoken in western and central India. In 1901 the number of speakers was 18,237,899, or about the same as the population of Spain. Marathi occupies an irregular triangular area of approximately 100,000 sq.m., having its apex about the district of Balaghat in the Central Provinces, and for its base the western coast of the peninsula from Daman on the Gulf of Cambay in the north to Karwar on the open Arabian Sea in the south. It covers parts of two provinces of British India—Bombay and the Central Provinces (including Berar)—with numerous settlers in Central India and Madras, and is also the principal language of Portuguese India and of the north-western portion of His Highness the Nizam’s dominions. The standard form of speech is that of Poona in Bombay, and, in its various dialects it covers the larger part of that province, in which it is the vernacular of more than eight and a half millions of people.
As explained in the articleIndo-Aryan Languages, there were in ancient times two main groups of these forms of speech—one, the language of the Midland, spoken in the country near the Gangetic Doab, and the other, the languages of the so-called “Outer Band,†containing the Midland on three sides, west, east and south. The country to the south of the Midland, in which members of this Outer group of languages were formerly spoken, included the modern Rajputana and Gujarat, and extended to the basin of the river Nerbudda, being bounded on the south by the Vindhya hills. In the course of time the population of the Midland expanded, and gradually occupied this tract, reaching the sea in Gujarat. The language of the Outer Band was thus forced farther afield. Its speakers crossed the Vindhyas and settled in the central plateau of the Deccan and on the Konkan coast. Here they came into contact with speakers of the Dravidian languages of southern India. As happened elsewhere in India, they retained their own Aryan tongue, and gradually through the influence of their superior civilization imposed it upon the aborigines, so that all the inhabitants of this tract became the ancestors of the speakers of modern Marathi.
In Rajputana and Gujarat the language (seeGujarat) is to a certain extent mixed. Near the original Midland there are few traces of the Outer language, but as we go farther and farther away from that centre we find, as might be expected, the influence of the Midland language becoming weaker and weaker, and traces of the Outer language becoming more and more evident, until in Gujarati we recognize several important survivals of the old language once spoken by the earlier Aryan inhabitants.
Dialects.—Besides the standard form of speech, there is only one real dialect of Marathi, viz. Konkani (KÅnkaṇī), spoken in the country near Goa. There are also several local varieties, and we may conveniently distinguish between the Marathi of the Deccan, that of the Central Provinces (including Berar), and that of the northern and central Konkan. In the southern part of the district of Ratnagiri this latter Konkani variety of Marathi gradually merges into the true Konkani dialect through a number of intermediate forms of speech. There are also several broken jargones, based upon Marathi, employed by aboriginal tribes surviving in the hill country.
Relations with other Indo-Aryan Languages.—Marathi has to its north, in order from west to east, Gujarati, Rajasthani, Western Hindi and Eastern Hindi. To its east and south it has the Dravidian languages, Gondi, Telugu and Kanarese. Elsewhere in India Aryan languages gradually fade away into each other, so that it is impossible to fix any definite boundary line between them. But this is not the case with Marathi. It does not merge into any of the cognate neighbouring forms of speech, but possesses a distinct linguistic frontier. A native writer2says: “The Gujarati language agrees very closely with the languages of the countries lying to the north of it, because the Gujarati people came from the north. If a native of Delhi, Ajmere, Marwar, Mewar, Jaipur, &c., comes into Gujarat, the Gujarati people find no difficulty in understanding his language. But it is very wonderful that when people from countries bordering Gujarat on the south, as the Konkan, Maharashtra, &c.(i.e.people speaking Marathi) come to Gujarat, the Gujarati people do not in the least comprehend what they say.†This isolated character of Marathi is partly due to the barrier of the Vindhya range which lies to its north, and partly to the fact that none of the northern languages belongs now to the Outer Band, but are in more or less close relationship to the language of the Midland. There was no common ground either physical or linguistic, upon which the colliding forms of speech could meet on equal terms. Eastern Hindi is more closely related to Marathi than the others, and in its case, in its bordering dialects, we do find a few traces of the influence of Marathi—traces which are part of the essence of the language, and not mere borrowed waifs floating on the top of a sea of alien speech and not absorbed by it.
Written Character.—Marathi books are generally printed in the well-known Nagari character (seeSanskrit), and this is also used to a great extent in private transactions and correspondence. In the Maratha country it is known as theBÄlbÅdh(“teachable to children,â€i.e.“easyâ€) character. A cursive form of Nagari calledMÅá¸Ä«, or “twisted,†is also employed as a handwriting. It is said to have been invented in the 17th century by Balaji Avaji, the secretary of the celebrated Sivaji. Its chief merit is that each word can be written as a whole without lifting the pen from the paper, a feat which is impossible in the case of Nagari.3
Origin of the Language.—The word “MarÄá¹hī†signifies (the language) of the Maratha country. It is the modern form of the SanskritMÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«, just as “MarÄá¹hĆrepresents the oldMÄhÄ-rÄá¹£á¹ra, or Great Kingdom.MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«was the name given by Sanskrit writers to the particular form of Prakrit spoken in MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹ra, the great Aryan kingdom extending southwards from the Vindhya range to the Kistna, broadly corresponding to the southern part of the Bombay Presidency and to the state of Hyderabad. As pointed out in the articlePrakritthis MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« early obtained literary pre-eminence in India, and became the form of Prakrit employed as the language not only of lyric poetry but also of the formal epic (kÄvya). Dramatic works were composed in it, and it was the vehicle of the non-canonical scriptures of the Jaina religion. The oldest work in the language of which we have any knowledge is theSattasaÄ«, or Seven Centuries of verses, compiled at Pratiá¹£á¹hÄna, on the GÅdÄvarÄ«, the capital of King HÄla, at some time between the 3rd and 7th centuriesA.D.Pratiá¹£á¹hÄna is the modern Paithan in the Aurangabad district of Hyderabad, and that city was for long famous as a centre of literary composition. In later times the political centre of gravity was changed to Poona, the language of which district is now accepted as the standard of the best Marathi.
General Character of the Language.—In the following account of the main features of Marathi, the reader is presumed to be familiar with the leading facts stated in the articlesIndo-Aryan LanguagesandPrakrit. In the Prakrit stage of the Indo-Aryan languages we can divide the Prakrits into two well-defined groups, an Inner, ÅšaurasÄ“nÄ« and its connected dialects on the one hand, and an Outer, MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«, ArdhamÄgadhÄ«, and MÄgadhÄ« with their connected dialects on the other. These two groups differed in their phonetic laws, in their systems of declension and conjugation, in vocabulary, and in general character.4In regard to the last point reference may be made to the frequent use of meaningless suffixes, such as -alla, -illa, -ulla, &c., which can be added, almostad libitumto any noun, adjective or particle in MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« and ArdhamÄgadhÄ«, but which are hardly ever met in ÅšaurasÄ“nÄ«. These give rise to numerous secondary forms of words, used, it might be said, in a spirit of playfulness, which give a distinct flavour to the whole language. Similarly the late Mr Beames (Comparative Grammar, i. 103) well describes Marathi as possessing “a very decided individuality, a type quite its own, arising from its comparative isolation for so many centuries.†Elsewhere (p. 38) he uses language which would easily well apply to MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« Prakrit when he says, “Marathi is one of those languages which we may call playful—it delights in all sorts of jingling formations, and has struck out a larger quantity of secondary and tertiary words, diminutives, and the like, than any of the cognate tongues,†and again (p. 52):—
“In Marathi we see the results of the Pandit’s file applied to a form of speech originally possessed of much natural wildness and licence. The hedgerows have been pruned and the wild briars and roses trained into order. It is a copious and beautiful language, second only to Hindi. It has three genders, and the same elaborate preparation of the base as Sindhi, and, owing to the great corruption which has taken place in its terminations, the difficulty of determining the gender of nouns is as great in Marathi as in German. In fact, if we were to institute a parallel in this respect, we might appropriately describe Hindi as the English, Marathi as the German of the Indian group—Hindi having cast aside whatever could possibly be dispensed with, Marathi having retained whatever has been spared by the action of time. To an Englishman Hindi commends itself by its absence of form, and the positional structure of its sentences resulting therefrom; to our High-German cousins the Marathi, with its fuller array of genders, terminations, and inflexions, would probably seem the completer and finer language.â€
“In Marathi we see the results of the Pandit’s file applied to a form of speech originally possessed of much natural wildness and licence. The hedgerows have been pruned and the wild briars and roses trained into order. It is a copious and beautiful language, second only to Hindi. It has three genders, and the same elaborate preparation of the base as Sindhi, and, owing to the great corruption which has taken place in its terminations, the difficulty of determining the gender of nouns is as great in Marathi as in German. In fact, if we were to institute a parallel in this respect, we might appropriately describe Hindi as the English, Marathi as the German of the Indian group—Hindi having cast aside whatever could possibly be dispensed with, Marathi having retained whatever has been spared by the action of time. To an Englishman Hindi commends itself by its absence of form, and the positional structure of its sentences resulting therefrom; to our High-German cousins the Marathi, with its fuller array of genders, terminations, and inflexions, would probably seem the completer and finer language.â€
In the articlePrakritit is explained that the literary Prakrits were not the direct parents of the modern Indo-Aryan vernaculars. Each Prakrit had first to pass through an intermediate stage—that of the ApabhramÅ›a—before it took the form current at the present day. While we know a good deal about MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« and very little about ÅšaurasÄ“nÄ« Prakrit, the case is reversed in regard to their respective ApabhramÅ›as. The ÅšaurasÄ“nÄ ApabhramÅ›a is the only one concerning which we have definite information. Although it would be quite possible to reason from analogy, and thus to obtain what would be the corresponding forms of MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹ra ApabhramÅ›a, we should often be travelling upon insecure ground, and it is therefore advisable to compare Marathi, not with the ApabhramÅ›a from which it is immediately derived, but with its grandmother, MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« Prakrit. We shall adopt this course, so far as possible, in the following pages.
Vocabulary.—In the articleIndo-Aryan Languagesit is explained that, allowing for phonetic development, the vocabulary of ÅšaurasÄ“nÄ« Prakrit was the same as that of Sanskrit, but that the farther we go from the Midland, the more examples we meet of a new class of words, the so-calleddÄ“Å›yas, descendants of the old Primary Prakrits spoken outside the Midland, and strange to Sanskrit. MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« Prakrit, the most independent of the Outer languages, was distinguished by the large proportion of thesedÄ“Å›yasfound in its vocabulary, and the same is consequently the case in Marathi. The Brahmins of the Maratha country have always had a great reputation for learning, and their efforts to create a literary language out of their vernacular took, as in other parts of India, the direction of borrowingtatsamasfrom Sanskrit, to lend what they considered to be dignity to their sentences. But the richness of the language indÄ“Å›yawords has often rendered such borrowing unnecessary, and has saved Marathi, although the proportion oftatsamastotadbhavas5in the language is more than sufficiently high, from the fate of the Pandit-ridden literary Bengali, in which 80 to 90% of the vocabulary is pure Sanskrit. There is indeed a tradition of stylistic chastity in the Maratha country from the earliest times, and even Sanskrit writers contrasted the simple elegance of the Deccan (orVaidarbhÄ«) style with the flowery complexity of eastern India.The proportion of Persian and, through Persian, of Arabic words in the Marathi vocabulary is comparatively low, when compared with, say, Hindostani. The reason is, firstly, the predominance in the literary world of these learned Brahmins, and, secondly, the fact that the Maratha country was not conquered by the Mussulmans till a fairly late period, nor was it so thoroughly occupied by them as were Sind, the Punjab, and the Gangetic valley.Phonetics.6—In the standard dialect the vowels are the same as in Sanskrit, butá¹›andḷonly appear in words borrowed directly from that language (tatsamas). Final short vowels (a,iandu) have all disappeared in prose pronunciation, except in a few local dialects, and finalianduare not even written. On the other hand, in the Nagari character, the non-pronunciation of a finalais not indicated. After an accented syllable a medialais pronounced very lightly, even when the accent is not the main accent of the word. Thus, if we indicate the main accent by ’, and subsidiary accents (equivalentto the Hebrewmethegh) by `, then the wordkárawat, a saw, is pronouncedkárawat; andkà ḷakáḷaṇễ, to be agitated, is pronouncedkà ḷakáḷaṇễ. In Konkani the vowelaassumes the sound of o in “hot,†a sound which is also heard in the language of Bengal. In dialectic speechÄ“is often interchangeable with short or longa, so that the standardsÄá¹…gitalá»…, it was said, may appear assÄá¹…gitalÄorsÄá¹…gitalẫ. The vowelsÄ“andÅare apparently always long in the standard dialect, thus following Sanskrit; but in Konkani there is a short and a long form of each vowel. Very probably, although the distinction is not observed in writing, and has not been noticed by native scholars, these vowels are also pronounced short in the standard dialect under the circumstances to be now described. When a longÄ,Ä«orÅ«precedes an accented syllable it is usually shortened. In the case ofÄthe shortening is not indicated by the spelling, but the written longÄis pronounced short like theăin the Italianballo. Thus, the dative ofpÄ«k, a ripe crop, ispikÄ̇s, and that ofhÄt, a hand, ishÄtÄ̇s, pronouncedhătÄ̇s. Almost the only compound consonants which survived in the Prakrit stage were double letters, and in M. these are usually simplified, the preceding vowel being lengthened in compensation. Thus, the PrakritkannÅbecomeskÄn, an ear; Pr.bhikkhÄbecomesbhÄ«k, alms; and Pr.puttÅbecomespÅ«t, a son. In the PiÅ›Äca (seeIndo-Aryan Languages) and other languages of north-western India it is not usual to lengthen the vowel in compensation, and the same tendency is observable in Konkani, which, it may be remarked, appears to contain many relics of the old Prakrit (SaurÄá¹£á¹rÄ«) spoken in the Gujarat country before the invasion from the Midland. Thus, in Konkani, we haveputas well aspÅ«t, while the word corresponding to the Pr.ekkÅ, one, isekas well as the standardÄ“k.On the whole, the consonantal system is much the same as in other Indian languages. Nasalization of long vowels is very common, especially in Konkani. In this article it is indicated by the sign ~ placed over the affected vowel. The palatals are pronounced as in Skr. in words borrowed from that language or from Hindostani, and also in Marathitadbhavasbeforei,Ä«,Ä“ory. Thus,caṇá¸(tatsama), fierce;jamÄ(Hindostani), collected;cikhal(M.tadbhava), mud. In other cases they are pronouncedts,tsh,dz,dzhrespectively. ThustsÄkar(forcÄkar), a servant;dzÄṇễ(forjÄṇễ), to go. There are twos-sounds in the standard dialect which are very similarly distinguished.Åš, pronounced like an Englishsh, is used beforei,Ä«,Ä“ory; ands, as in English “sin,†elsewhere. Thus,Å›imphÄ«, a caste-name;śīl, a stone;śēt, a field;Å›yÄm, dark blue; butsÄp, a snake;sumÄr(PersianshumÄr), an estimate;strÄ«, a woman. In the dialectssis practically the only sibilant used, and that is changed by the vulgar speakers of Konkani toh(again as in north-western India). Aspirated letters show a tendency to lose their aspiration, especially in Konkani. Thus,bhÄ«k(forbhÄ«kh), alms, quoted above;hÄt(Pr.hatthÅ), a hand. In Konkani we have words such asboiṇ, a sister, against standardbhain;gÄ“r, standardgharī̇, in a house;ÄmÄ«, standardÄmhÄ«, we. Here again we have agreement with north-western India. Generally speaking Marathi closely follows MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ when that differs from the Prakrits of other parts of India. Thus we have Skr.vrajati, MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«vaccai(instead ofvajjai), he goes; KonkanivotsÅ«, to go; SaurasÄ“nÄ«genhiduim, MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«ghettuá¹, to take; MarathighÄ“talá»…, taken. There is similarly both in Marathi and MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« a laxness in distinguishing between cerebral and dental letters (which again reminds us of north-western India). Thus, Skr.daÅ›ati, MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«á¸asai, he bites; M.á¸Äsaṇễto bite; Skr.dahati, MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«á¸ahai, he burns; M.á¸Ädzaṇễ, to be hot; Skr.gardabhas; ÅšaurasÄ“nÄ«gaddahÅ; HindostanigadhÄ; but MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«gaá¸á¸ahÅ; M.gÄá¸hav, an ass; and so many others. In MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« everynbecomesṇ, but in Jaina MSS. when thenwas initial or doubled it remained unchanged. A similar rule is followed regardingland the cerebralḷcommon in Vedic Sanskrit, in MSS. coming from southern India, and, according to the grammarians, also in the PiÅ›Äca dialects of the north-west. In M. a Pr. doublennorllis simplified, according to the usual rule, tonorlrespectively, with lengthening of the preceding vowel in compensation. Bothṇandḷare of frequent occurrence in M., but only as medial letters, and then only when they representṇorḷin the Pr. stage. When the letter is initial or represents a doublennorllof Pr. it is alwaysnorlrespectively, thus offering a striking testimony to the accuracy of the Jaina and southern MSS. Thus, ordinary MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rīṇa, but Jaina MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«na, M. na, not; MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« (both kinds)ghaṇÅ, M.ghaṇ, dense; MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«soṇṇaaá¹, Jainasonnaaá¹, M.sÅnē̇, gold; MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«kÄlÅ, time, southern MSS. of the samekÄlÅ, M.kÄḷ, time; MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«callai, M.tsÄlÄ“, he goes or used to go. In some of the local dialects, following the Vedic practice, we findḷwheredis employed elsewhere, as in (Berar)ghÅḷÄforghÅá¸Ä, a horse; and there are instances of this change occurring even in MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«;e.g.Skr.taá¸agaá¹, MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«taḷÄam, M.taḷễ, a pond.The Skr. compound consonantjñis pronounceddnyin the standard dialect, butgyin the Konkan. Thus, Skr.jñÄnaá¹becomesdnyÄnorgyÄnaccording to locality.Declension.—Marathi and Gujarati are the only Indo-Aryan languages which have retained the three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter, of Sanskrit and Prakrit. In rural dialects of Western Hindi and of Rajasthani sporadic instances of the neuter gender have survived, but elsewhere the only example occurs in the interrogative pronoun. In Marathi the neuter denotes not only inanimate things but also animate beings when both sexes are included, or when the sex is left undecided. Thus,ghÅá¸á»…, neut., a horse, without regard to sex. In the Konkan the neuter gender is further employed to denote females below the age of puberty, as incÄ“á¸Å«, a girl. Numerous masculine and feminine words, however, denote inanimate objects. The rules for distinguishing the gender of such nouns are as complicated as in German, and must be learned from the grammars. For the most part, but not always, words follow the genders of their Skr. originals, and the abrasion of terminations in the modern language renders it impossible to lay down any complete set of rules on the subject. We may, however, say that strong bases (see below) inÄ—and these do not includetatsamas—are masculine, and that the corresponding feminine and neuter words end inÄ«andá»…respectively. Thus,mulagÄ, a son;mulagÄ«, a daughter;mulagá»…, a child of so and so. As a further guide we may say that sex is usually distinguished by the use of the masculine and feminine genders, and that large and powerful inanimate objects are generally masculine, while small, delicate things are generally feminine. In the case of some animals (as in our “horse†and “mareâ€) sex is distinguished by the use of different words;e.g.bÅkaá¸, he-goat, andśēḷī, a nanny-goat.The nominative form of atadbhavaword is derived from the nominative form in Sanskrit and Prakrit, buttatsamawords are generally borrowed in the form of the Sanskrit crude base. Thus, Skr. crude basemÄlin, nom. sing,mÄlÄ«; Pr. nom.mÄliÅ(mÄḷiÅ); M.mÄḷī(tadbhava), a gardener; Skr. basemati-; nom.matis; M.mati(tatsama). Sometatsamasare, however, borrowed in the nominative form, as in Skr.dhanin, nom.dhanÄ«; M.dhanÄ«, a rich man. In Prakrit the nominative singular of many masculinetatsamasended inÅ. In the Apabhraá¹Å›a stage thisÅwas weakened tou, and in modern Marathi, under the general rule, this final shortuwas dropped, the noun thus reverting as stated above to the form of the Sanskrit crude base. But in old Marathi, the short u was still retained. Thus, the SanskritÄ«Å›varas, lord, became, as a Prakrittatsama,Ä«Å›varÅ, which in Apabhraá¹Å›a took the formÄ«Å›varu. The old Marathi form was alsoÄ«Å›varu, but in modern Marathi we haveÄ«Å›var.Tadbhavasderived from Sanskrit bases inaare treated very similarly, the termination being dropped in the modern language. Thus, Skr. nom. masc.karṇas, Pr.kannÅ, M.kÄn; Skr. nom. sing. fem.khaá¹vÄ, Pr.khaá¹á¹Ä, M.khÄá¹, a bed; Skr. nom. sing. neut.gá¹›haá¹, Pr.gharaá¹, M.ghar, a house. Sometimes the Skr. nom. sing. fem. of these nouns ends inÄ«, but this makes no difference, as in Skr. and Pr.cullÄ«, M.cÅ«l, a fireplace. There is one important set of exceptions to this rule. In the articlePrakritattention is drawn to the frequent use of pleonastic suffixes, especially of -(a)ka- (masc. and neut.), -(i)kÄ(fem.). This could in Sanskrit be added to any noun, whatever the termination of the base might be. In Prakrit thekof this suffix, being medial, was elided, so that we get forms like Skr. nom. sing. masc.ghÅá¹a-kas, Pr. ghÅá¸a-Å, M. ghÅá¸Ä, a horse; Skr. nom. sing. fem. ghÅá¹i-kÄ, Pr.ghÅá¸i-Ä, M.ghÅá¸Ä«, a mare; Skr.ghÅá¹a-kaá¹, Pr.ghÅá¸a-(y)am, M.ghÅá¸e, a horse (without distinction of sex). Such modern forms made with this pleonastic suffix, and ending inÄ,Ä«orá»…are called “strong forms,†while all those made without it are called “weak forms.†As a rule the fact that a noun is in a weak or a strong form does not affect its meaning, but sometimes the use of a masculine strong form indicates clumsiness or hugeness. ThusbhÄkar(weak form) means “bread,†whilebhÄkarÄ(strong form) means “a huge loaf of bread.†The other pleonastic suffixes mentioned underPrakritare also employed in Marathi, but usually with specific senses. Thus the suffix -illa- generally forms adjectives, while -á¸a-ka- (in M. -á¸Ä, fem. -á¸Ä«, neut. -á¸á»…) implies contempt.The synthetic declension of Sanskrit and Prakrit has been preserved in Marathi more completely than in any other Indo-Aryan language. While MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« Prakrit, like all others, passed through the Apabhraá¹Å›a stage in the course of its development, the conservative character of the language retained even in that stage some of the old pure MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« forms. In the articlePrakritwe have seen how there gradually arose a laxity in distinguishing the cases. In MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« the Sanskrit dative fell into almost entire disuse, the genitive being used in its place, while in Apabhraá¹Å›a the case terminations become worn down to -hu, -ho, -hi, -hÄ«and -hÄ, of which -hiand -hÄ«were employed for several cases, both singular and plural. There was also a marked tendency for these terminations to become confused, so that in the earliest stages of most of the modern Indo-Aryan vernaculars we find -hifreely employed for any oblique case of the singular, and -hÄ«for any oblique case of the plural. Another feature of Prakrit was the simplification of the complicated declensional system of Sanskrit by assimilating it in all cases to the declension ofa-bases, corresponding to the first and second declensions in Latin.In the formation of the plural the Prakrit declensions are very closely followed by Marathi. We shall confine our remarks toa-bases, which may be either weak or strong forms, and of which the feminine ends sometimes inÄ, and sometimes inÄ«. In Prakrit the nom. plur. of these nouns ends masc.Ä, fem.ÄÅ,Ä«Å, neut.Äiá¹. We thus get the following:—Masculine.Feminine.Neuter.Nom. Sing.Nom. Plur.Nom. Sing.Nom. Plur.Nom. Sing.Nom. Plur.Nom. Sing.Nom. Plur.Weak form.PrakritkannÅ,kannÄkhaá¹á¹Ä,khaá¹á¹ÄÅcullÄ«,cullÄ«Ågharaá¹,gharÄiá¹an ear.a bed.a fireplace.a house.MarathikÄnkÄnkhÄá¹khÄá¹ÄcÅ«lcÅ«lÄ«gharghará»…Strong form.PrakritghÅá¸aÅ,ghÅá¸ayÄghÅá¸iÄ,ghÅá¸iÄÅ——*ghÅá¸ayaá¹,*ghÅá¸ayÄiá¹a horse.a mare.a horse.MarathighÅá¸ÄghÅá¸Ä“ghÅá¸Ä«ghÅá¸yÄ——ghÅá¸á»…ghÅá¸Ä«Several of the old synthetic cases have survived in Marathi, especially in the antique form of the language preserved in poetry. Most of them have fallen into disuse in the modern prose language. We may note the following, some of which have preserved the MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« forms, while others are directly derived from the Apabhraá¹Å›a stage of the language. We content ourselves with giving some of the synthetic cases of one noun, a weak neuter a-base, ghar, a house.MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« Prakrit.Apabhraá¹Å›a.Marathi.Sing.Nominativegharaá¹gharugharDativegharassa(genitive)gharaho(genitive)gharÄs(dative)LocativegharÄ“gharahi(-hÄ«)gharī̃, gharÄGeneral obliquegharassa(genitive)gharaho(genitive)gharÄs, gharÄPlur.NominativegharÄiá¹gharaī̃ghará»…LocativegharÄ“sugharahi(-hÄ«)gharī̃General obliquegharÄṇa(genitive)gharahÄ(genitive)gharẫAs already stated, in Prakrit the genitive is employed instead of the dative, and thus forms the basis of the Marathi dative singular. The genitive plural is not used as a dative plural in Marathi, but it is the basis of the plural general oblique case. The Marathi singular general oblique case is really the same as the Marathi dative singular, but in the standard form of speech when so used the finalsis dropped,gharÄs, as a general oblique case, being only found in dialects. This general oblique case is the result of the confusion of the various oblique cases originally distinguished in Sanskrit and in literary Prakrit. In Apabhraá¹Å›a the genitive began to usurp the function of all the other cases. It is obvious that if it were regularly employed in so indeterminate a sense, it would give rise to great confusion. Hence when it was intended to show clearly what particular case was meant, it became usual to add, to this indeterminate genitive, defining particles corresponding to the English “of,†“to,†“from,†“by,†&c., which, as in all Indo-Aryan languages they follow the main word, are called “postpositions.†Before dealing with these, it will be convenient to give the modern Marathi synthetic declension of the commoner forms of nouns. The only synthetic case which is now employed in prose is the dative, and this can always be formed from the general oblique case by adding an s to the end of the word. It is therefore not given in the following table.Masculine.Feminine.Neuter.Meaning.Ear.Horse.Gardener.Bed.Fireplace.Mare.House.Horse.Pearl.Sing.Nom.kÄnghÅá¸ÄmÄḷīkhÄá¹cÅ«lghÅá¸Ä«gharghÅá¸á»…motÄ«Gen. obl.kÄnÄghÅá¸yÄmÄḷyÄkhÄá¹Ä“cÅ«lÄ«ghÅá¸Ä«gharÄghÅá¸yÄmÅtyÄPlur.Nom.kÄnghÅá¸á»…mÄḷīkhÄá¹ÄcÅ«lÄ«ghÅá¸yÄghará»…ghÅá¸Ä«ÌƒmÅtyá»…Gen. obl.kÄnẫghÅá¸yẫmÄḷyẫkhÄá¹áº«cÅ«lÄ«ghÅá¸yẫgharẫghÅá¸yẫmÅtyẫThe usual postpositions are:—Instrumental:ná»…, pluralnī̃, by. Dative:lÄ, plural alsonÄ, to or for. Ablative:hÅ«n,Å«n, from. Genitive:tsÄ, of. Locative:~t, in. We thus get the following complete modern declension ofghar, a house (neut.):—Sing.Plur.Nom.gharghará»…Acc.gharghará»…Instr.gharÄná»…gharẫnī̃Dat.gharÄs, gharÄlÄgharẫs, gharẫlÄ, gharẫnÄAbl.gharÄhÅ«n, gharÅ«ngharẫhÅ«nGen.gharÄtsÄgharẫtsaLoc.gharẫtgharẫtThe accusative is usually the same as the nominative, but when definiteness is required the dative is employed instead. The terminationná»…, with its pluralnī̃, is, as explained in the articleGujarati, really the oblique form, by origin a locative, of thenÄornÅ, employed in Gujarati to form the genitive. The suffixnÄof the dative plural is derived from the same word. Here it is probably a corruption of the Apabhraá¹Å›anÄuornaho. The postposition lÄ is probably a corruption of the SanskritlÄbhÄ“, Apabhraá¹Å›alahi, for the benefit (of). As regards the ablative, we have in old Marathi poetry a form corresponding togharÄhu-niyẫ, which explains the derivation.GharÄhuis a by-form of the Prakrit synthetic ablativegharÄu, to whichniyÄ, another oblique form ofnÄ, is added to define the meaning. The locative termination~tis a contraction of the Pr.antÅ, Skr. antar, within.The genitivegharÄtsÄis really an adjective meaning “belonging to the house,†and agrees in gender, number and case with the noun which is possessed. Thus:mÄḷyÄtsÄ ghÅá¸Ä, the gardener’s horse.mÄḷyÄcÄ“ ghÅá¸Ä“, the gardener’s horses.mÄḷyÄcÄ« ghÅá¸Ä«, the gardener’s mare.mÄḷyÄcyÄ ghÅá¸yÄ, the gardener’s mares.mÄḷyÄcá»… ghÅá¸á»…, the gardener’s horse (neut.).mÄḷyÄcī̃ ghÅá¸Ä«, the gardener’s horses (neut.).The suffixtsÄ,cÄ«,cá»…, is derived from the Sanskrit suffixtyakas, Pr.caÅ, which is used in much the same sense. In Sanskrit it may be added either to the locative or to the unmodified base of the word to which it is attached, thus,ghÅá¹akÄ“-tyakasorghÅá¹aka-tyakas. Similarly in Marathi, while it is usually added to the general oblique base, it may also be added to the unmodified noun, in which case it has a more distinctly adjectival force. The use oftsÄhas been influenced by the fact that the Sanskrit wordká¹›tyas, Pr.kiccaÅ, also takes the same form in Marathi. As explained in the articleHindostani, synonyms of this word are used in other Indo-Aryan languages to form suffixes of the genitive.7Strong adjectives, including genitives, can be declined like substantives, and agree with the qualified noun in gender, number and case. When the substantive is in an oblique case, the adjective is put into the general oblique form without any defining postposition, which is added to the substantive alone. Weak adjectives are not inflected in modern prose, but are inflected in poetry. As in other Indo-Aryan languages, comparison is effected by putting the noun with which comparison is made in the ablative case.The pronouns closely follow the Prakrit originals. The origin of all these is discussed in the articleHindostani, and the account need not be repeated here. As usual in these languages, there is no pronoun of the third person, its place being supplied by the demonstratives. The following are the principal pronominal forms:—mī̃, I, instr.mī̃,myÄ, dat.malÄ, obl.madz;ÄmhÄ«, we, instr.Ämhī̃, obl.Ämhẫ;mÄdzhÄ, my, of me;ÄmtsÄ, our, of us.tū̃, thou, instr.tū̃,twÄ, dat.tulÄ, obl.tudz;tumhÄ«, you, instr.tumhī̃, obl.tumhẫ;tudzhÄ, thy, of thee;tumtsÄ, your, of you.Äpan, self, obl.Äpaṇa, gen.ÄpalÄ. This is also employed as an honorific pronoun of the second person, and, in addition, to mean “we including you.â€hÄ, this, fem.,hÄ«, neut.há»…;tÅ, he, that, fem.tÄ«, neut.tá»…;dzÅ, who, fem.,jÄ«, neut.já»….kÅṇ, who?kÄy, what? obl.kÄÅ›a;kÅṇī, any one;kẫhÄ«, anything.In all these the plural is employed honorifically instead of the singular.Conjugation.—In Prakrit (q.v.) the complicated system of Sanskrit conjugation had already disappeared, and all verbs fell into two classes, the first, ora-, conjugation, and the second, orÄ“-, conjugation, in which theÄ“represents theayaof the Sanskrit tenth conjugation and of causal and denominative verbs. Marathi follows Prakrit in this respect and has two conjugations. The first, corresponding to the Prakrita-class, as a rule consists of intransitive verbs, and the second, corresponding to thee- or causal class, of transitive verbs, but there are numerous exceptions. Verbs whose roots end in vowels or inhbelong partly to one and partly to the other conjugation. These conjugations differ only in the present and past participles and in the tenses formed from them. Here, in the first conjugation ana, and in the second conjugation ani, is inserted between the base and the termination.The only original Prakrit tenses which have survived in Marathi are the present and the imperative. The present has lost its original meaning and is now a habitual past. It is also the base of the Marathi future. These three tenses, the habitual past, the imperative and the future, are conjugated as follows. They should be compared with the corresponding forms in the articlePrakrit. The verb selected is the rootuá¹h, rise, of the first conjugation.Person.Habitual past(old present),I used to rise.Imperative.Let me rise.Future.I shall rise.Sing.Plural.Sing.Plural.Sing.Plural.1uá¹há»…uá¹hū̃uá¹hū̃uá¹hū̃uá¹hÄ“nuá¹hū̃2uá¹hÄ“suá¹hẫuá¹huá¹hÄuá¹haśīluá¹hÄl3uá¹hÄ“uá¹hatuá¹hÅuá¹hÅtuá¹hÄ“luá¹hatÄ«lAs in Rajasthani, Bihari and the Indo-Aryan language of Nepal (seePahari), the future is formed by addingl, or in the first person singularn, to the old present. In the second person singular thelhas been added to a form derived from the Pr.uá¹á¹hasi, which is also the origin of the old presentuá¹hÄ“s. Some scholars, however, see inuá¹haśīa derivation of the Prakrit futureuá¹á¹hihisi, thou shalt arise, and a confusion of the Prakrit present and future is quite possible.The remaining tenses are modern forms derived from the participles. The verbal nouns, participles and infinitives are as follows:—Prakrit(FirstConjugation).MarathiFirstConjugation.MarathiSecondConjugation.Verbal Nounuá¹á¹haṇīaá¹uá¹haṇễ, the act of rising.mÄraṇễ, the act of killing.Infinitiveuá¹á¹hiuá¹uá¹hū̃, to rise.mÄrū̃, to kill.Present Participleuá¹á¹hantÅ,uá¹á¹hantaÅuá¹hat,uá¹hatÄ, rising.mÄrÄ«t,mÄritÄ, killing.Past Participleuá¹á¹hiallaÅuá¹halÄ, risen.mÄrilÄ, killed.Future Participle Activeuá¹á¹haṇaaá¸Åuá¹haṇÄr, about to rise.mÄraṇÄr, about to kill.Future Participle Passiveuá¹á¹hiavvaÅuá¹hÄwÄ, about to be risen.mÄrÄwÄ, about to be killed.Conjunctive Participleuá¹á¹hiuuá¹hÅ«n, having risen.mÄrÅ«n, having killed.The only form that requires notice is that of the conjunctive participle. It is derived from the Apabhrará¹Å›a formuá¹á¹hiu, to which the dative suffixn(old Marathini,niyẫ) has been added.Various tenses are formed by adding personal suffixes to the present, past or future passive participle. When the subject of the verb is in the nominative the tense so formed agrees with it in gender, number and person. We may note four such tenses: a present,uá¹hatÅ̃, I rise; a past,uá¹halÅ̃, I rose; past conditional,uá¹hatÅ̃, had I risen; and a subjunctive,uá¹hÄwÄ, I should rise. In the present, the terminations are relics of the verb substantive, and in the other tenses of the personal pronouns. In these latter, as there is no pronoun of the third person, the third persons have no termination, but are simply the unmodified participle. We thus get the present and the past conjugated as follows, with a masculine subject:—Present, I rise.Past, I rose.Singular.Plural.Singular.Plural.1uá¹hatÅ̃uá¹hatÅuá¹halÅ̃uá¹halÅ̃2uá¹hatÅsuá¹hatẫuá¹halÄsuá¹halẫ3uá¹hatÅuá¹hatÄtuá¹halÄuá¹halÄ“The feminine and neuter forms differ from the above: thus,uá¹hatÄ“s, thou (fem.) risest;uá¹halÄ«s, thou (fem.) didst rise; and so on for the other persons and for the neuter.It will be observed that, in the case of transitive verbs, while the present participle is active, the past and future passive participles are passive in meaning. The same is the case with the future passive participle of the intransitive verb. In tenses, therefore, formed from these participles the sentence must be construed passively. The subject must be put into the instrumental case, and the participle inflected to agree with the object. If the object is not expressed, or, as is sometimes the case, is expressed in the guise of a kind of ethic dative, the participle is construed impersonally, and is employed in the neuter form. Thus (present tense)mulagÄ(nom. masc.)pÅthÄ«vÄcitÅ, the boy reads a book, but (past tense)mulagyÄná»…(instrumentalpÅthÄ«(nom. fem.)vÄcilÄ«(fem.) the boy read a book, literally, by-the-boy a-book was-read; ormulagyÄná»… pÅthÄ«lÄ(dative)vÄcilá»…(neuter), the boy read the book, literally, by-the-boy, with-reference-to-the-book, it-(impersonal)-was-read. Similarly in the subjunctive formed from the future passive participle,mulagyÄná»… pÅthÄ« vÄcÄwÄ«, the boy should read a book (by-the-boy a-book is-to-be-read) ormulagyÄná»… pÅthÄ«lÄ vÄcÄwá»…, the boy should read the book [by-the-boy with-reference-to-the-book, it (impersonal)-is-to-be-read]. As an example of the subjunctive of an intransitive verb, we havetwÄ uá¹hÄwá»…, by-thee it-is-to-be-risen, thou shouldst rise. As in intransitive verbs the passive sense is not so strong, in their case the tense may also be used actively, as intū̃ uá¹hÄwÄs, thou shouldst rise,lit., thou (art) to-be-risen. It will be noted that when a participle is used passively it takes no personal suffix.We have seen that the present tense is formed by compounding the present participle with the verb substantive. Further tenses are similarly made by suffixing, without compounding, various tenses of the verb substantive to the various participles. ThusmÄ« uá¹hat Ähá»…, I am rising;mÄ« uá¹hat hÅtÅ̃, I was rising;myÄ uá¹hÄvá»… hÅtá»…(impersonal construction), I should have risen. In the case of tenses formed from the past participle, the auxiliary is appended, not to the participle, but to the past tense, as inmī̃ uá¹halÅ̃ ÄhÄ“, I have risen;myÄ mÄrilÄ ÄhÄ“(personal passive construction) ormyÄ mÄrilá»…ÄhÄ“ (impersonal passive construction), I have killed. SimilarlymÄ« uá¹halÅ̃ hÅtÅ̃(active construction), I had risen. The usual forms of the present and past of the verb substantive are:—Present, I am.Past, I was (masc).Singular.Plural.Singular.Plural.1Ähá»…Ähá»…hÅtÅ̃hÅtÅ̃2ÄhÄ“sÄhẫhÅtÄshÅtẫ3ÄhÄ“ÄhÄ“thÅtÄhÅtÄ“The past changes for gender, but the present is immutable in this respect.Ahá»…is usually considered to be a descendant of the Sanskritasmi, I am,8whilehÅtÅ̃is derived from the Pr.hoá¹taÅ, the present participle of what corresponds to the Skr. rootbhÅ«, become.A potential passive and a causal are formed by addingavto the root of a simple verb. The former follows the first, or intransitive, and the latter the second or transitive conjugation. The potential passive of a neuter verb is necessarily construed impersonally. The causal verb denotes indirect agency; thus,karaná»…, to do,karavaná»…, to cause a person to do;tyÄcyÄ-kaá¸Å«n myÄ tá»… karavilá»…, I caused him to do that, literally, by-means-of-him by-me that was-caused-to-be-done. The potential, being passive, has the subject in the dative (cf. Latinmihi est ludendum) or in the instrumental of the genitive, as inmalÄ(dative), ormÄjhyÄná»…(instr. ofmÄdzhÄ, of me),uthavatē̃, I can rise, literally, for-me, or by-my-(action), rising-can-be-done. So,RÄmÄlÄ, orRÄmÄcyÄná»…,pÅthÄ« vÄcavalÄ«, RÄm could read a book (by R. a book could be read).Several verbs are irregular. These must be learnt from the grammars. Here we may mentionhÅṇễ, to become, past participledzhÄlÄ;yēṇễ, to come, past participleÄlÄ; anddzÄṇễ, to go, past participlegÄ“lÄ. There are also numerous compound verbs. One of these, making a passive, is formed by conjugating the verbdzÄṇễ, to go, with the past participle of the principal verb. Thus,mÄrilÄ dzÄtÅ, he is being killed, literally, he goes killed.Literature.—As elsewhere in India, the modern vernacular literature of the Maratha country arose under the influence of the religious reformation inaugurated by RÄmÄnuja early in the 12th century. He and his followers taught devotion to a personal deity instead of the pantheism hitherto prevalent. The earliest writer of whom we have any record is NÄmdÄ“v (13th century), whose hymns in honour of Vithoba, a personal form of Vishnu, have travelled far beyond the home of their writer, and are even found in the SikhÀdi Granth. DnyÄnÅbÄ, a younger contemporary, wrote a paraphrase of the SanskritBhagavad GÄ«tÄ, which is still much admired. Passing over several intermediate writers we come to the period of the warrior Sivaji, the opponent of Aurangzeb. He was a disciple of RÄmdÄs (1608-1681), who exercised great influence over him, and whoseDÄsbÅdh, a work on religious duty, is a classic. Contemporary with RÄmdÄs and Sivaji was TukÄrÄm (1608-1649), a Śūdra by caste, and yet the greatest writer in the language. He began life as a petty shopkeeper, and being unsuccessful both in his business and in his family relations, he abandoned the world and became a wandering ascetic. HisAbhangsor “unbroken†hymns, probably so called from their indefinite length and loose, flowing metre, are famous in the country of his birth. They are fervent, but though abounding in excellent morality, do not rise to any great height as poetry. Other Marathi poets who may be mentioned are ÅšrÄ«dhar (1678-1728), the most copious of all, who translated theBhÄgavata PurÄna, and the learned MayÅ«ra or MÅrÅpant (1729-1794), whose works smell too much of the lamp to satisfy European standards of criticism. MahÄ«pati (1715-1790) was an imitator of TukÄrÄm, but his chief importance rests on the fact that he collected the popular traditions about national saints, and was thus the author of theActa sanctorumof the Marathas. LÄvaṇīs, or erotic lyrics, by various writers, are popular, but are often more passionate than decent. Another branch of Marathi literature is composed ofPÄwÄá¸Äsor war-ballads, mostly by nameless poets, which are sung everywhere throughout the country. There is a small prose literature, consisting of narratives of historical events (the so-calledBakhars), moral maxims and popular tales.In the 19th century the facilities of the printing press are responsible for a great mass of published matter. Most of the best works have been written in English by learned natives, upon whom the methods of European scholarship have exercised more influence than elsewhere in India, and have given rise to a happy combination of western science with Oriental lore. No vernacular authors of outstanding merit have appeared during the last century.Konkani once had a literature of its own, which is said to have been destroyed by the Inquisition at Goa. Temples and manuscripts were burnt wholesale. Under Roman Catholic auspices a new literature arose, the earliest writer being an Englishman, Thomas Stephens (Thomaz Estevão), who came to Goa in 1579, wrote the first Konkani grammar, and died there in 1619. Amongst other works, he was the author of a Konkani paraphrase of the New Testament in metrical form, which has been several times reprinted and is still a favourite work with the native Christians. Since his time there has grown up a considerable body of Christian literature from the pens of Portuguese missionaries and native converts.Authorities.—Marathi is fortunate in possessing the best dictionary of any modern Indian language, J. T. Molesworth’s (2nd ed., Bombay, 1857). Navalkar’s (3rd ed., Bombay, 1894) is the best grammar. The earliest students of Marathi were the Portuguese, who were familiar only with the language as spoken on the coast,i.e.with the standard dialect of the northern Konkan and with Konkani. They have since devoted themselves to these two forms of speech. For the former, reference may be made to theGrammatica da lingua Concani no dialecto do norte, by J. F. da Cunha Rivara (Goa, 1858). For Konkani proper, see A. F. X. Maffei’sGrammar(Mangalore, 1882) andDictionaries(ibid., 1883). These are in English. Monsenhor S. R. Dalgado is the author of aKonkan-Portuguese Dictionary(Bombay, 1893).For further information regarding Marathi in general, see the list of authorities underIndo-Aryan Languages. For accounts of Marathi literature, see the preface to Molesworth’sDictionary; also J. Murray Mitchell’s “The Chief Marathi Poets†inTransactions of the Congress of Orientalists, London, 1892, i. 282 sqq., and ch. viii. of M. G. Ranade’sRise of the Maratha Power(Bombay, 1900). For Konkani literature, see J. Gerson da Cunha’s “Materials for the History of Oriental Studies among the Portuguese,†in theProceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Orientalists, ii. 179 sqq. (Florence, 1881). A full account of Marathi, given in great detail, will be found in vol. vii. of theLinguistic Survey of India(Calcutta, 1905).
Vocabulary.—In the articleIndo-Aryan Languagesit is explained that, allowing for phonetic development, the vocabulary of ÅšaurasÄ“nÄ« Prakrit was the same as that of Sanskrit, but that the farther we go from the Midland, the more examples we meet of a new class of words, the so-calleddÄ“Å›yas, descendants of the old Primary Prakrits spoken outside the Midland, and strange to Sanskrit. MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« Prakrit, the most independent of the Outer languages, was distinguished by the large proportion of thesedÄ“Å›yasfound in its vocabulary, and the same is consequently the case in Marathi. The Brahmins of the Maratha country have always had a great reputation for learning, and their efforts to create a literary language out of their vernacular took, as in other parts of India, the direction of borrowingtatsamasfrom Sanskrit, to lend what they considered to be dignity to their sentences. But the richness of the language indÄ“Å›yawords has often rendered such borrowing unnecessary, and has saved Marathi, although the proportion oftatsamastotadbhavas5in the language is more than sufficiently high, from the fate of the Pandit-ridden literary Bengali, in which 80 to 90% of the vocabulary is pure Sanskrit. There is indeed a tradition of stylistic chastity in the Maratha country from the earliest times, and even Sanskrit writers contrasted the simple elegance of the Deccan (orVaidarbhÄ«) style with the flowery complexity of eastern India.
The proportion of Persian and, through Persian, of Arabic words in the Marathi vocabulary is comparatively low, when compared with, say, Hindostani. The reason is, firstly, the predominance in the literary world of these learned Brahmins, and, secondly, the fact that the Maratha country was not conquered by the Mussulmans till a fairly late period, nor was it so thoroughly occupied by them as were Sind, the Punjab, and the Gangetic valley.
Phonetics.6—In the standard dialect the vowels are the same as in Sanskrit, butá¹›andḷonly appear in words borrowed directly from that language (tatsamas). Final short vowels (a,iandu) have all disappeared in prose pronunciation, except in a few local dialects, and finalianduare not even written. On the other hand, in the Nagari character, the non-pronunciation of a finalais not indicated. After an accented syllable a medialais pronounced very lightly, even when the accent is not the main accent of the word. Thus, if we indicate the main accent by ’, and subsidiary accents (equivalentto the Hebrewmethegh) by `, then the wordkárawat, a saw, is pronouncedkárawat; andkà ḷakáḷaṇễ, to be agitated, is pronouncedkà ḷakáḷaṇễ. In Konkani the vowelaassumes the sound of o in “hot,†a sound which is also heard in the language of Bengal. In dialectic speechÄ“is often interchangeable with short or longa, so that the standardsÄá¹…gitalá»…, it was said, may appear assÄá¹…gitalÄorsÄá¹…gitalẫ. The vowelsÄ“andÅare apparently always long in the standard dialect, thus following Sanskrit; but in Konkani there is a short and a long form of each vowel. Very probably, although the distinction is not observed in writing, and has not been noticed by native scholars, these vowels are also pronounced short in the standard dialect under the circumstances to be now described. When a longÄ,Ä«orÅ«precedes an accented syllable it is usually shortened. In the case ofÄthe shortening is not indicated by the spelling, but the written longÄis pronounced short like theăin the Italianballo. Thus, the dative ofpÄ«k, a ripe crop, ispikÄ̇s, and that ofhÄt, a hand, ishÄtÄ̇s, pronouncedhătÄ̇s. Almost the only compound consonants which survived in the Prakrit stage were double letters, and in M. these are usually simplified, the preceding vowel being lengthened in compensation. Thus, the PrakritkannÅbecomeskÄn, an ear; Pr.bhikkhÄbecomesbhÄ«k, alms; and Pr.puttÅbecomespÅ«t, a son. In the PiÅ›Äca (seeIndo-Aryan Languages) and other languages of north-western India it is not usual to lengthen the vowel in compensation, and the same tendency is observable in Konkani, which, it may be remarked, appears to contain many relics of the old Prakrit (SaurÄá¹£á¹rÄ«) spoken in the Gujarat country before the invasion from the Midland. Thus, in Konkani, we haveputas well aspÅ«t, while the word corresponding to the Pr.ekkÅ, one, isekas well as the standardÄ“k.
On the whole, the consonantal system is much the same as in other Indian languages. Nasalization of long vowels is very common, especially in Konkani. In this article it is indicated by the sign ~ placed over the affected vowel. The palatals are pronounced as in Skr. in words borrowed from that language or from Hindostani, and also in Marathitadbhavasbeforei,Ä«,Ä“ory. Thus,caṇá¸(tatsama), fierce;jamÄ(Hindostani), collected;cikhal(M.tadbhava), mud. In other cases they are pronouncedts,tsh,dz,dzhrespectively. ThustsÄkar(forcÄkar), a servant;dzÄṇễ(forjÄṇễ), to go. There are twos-sounds in the standard dialect which are very similarly distinguished.Åš, pronounced like an Englishsh, is used beforei,Ä«,Ä“ory; ands, as in English “sin,†elsewhere. Thus,Å›imphÄ«, a caste-name;śīl, a stone;śēt, a field;Å›yÄm, dark blue; butsÄp, a snake;sumÄr(PersianshumÄr), an estimate;strÄ«, a woman. In the dialectssis practically the only sibilant used, and that is changed by the vulgar speakers of Konkani toh(again as in north-western India). Aspirated letters show a tendency to lose their aspiration, especially in Konkani. Thus,bhÄ«k(forbhÄ«kh), alms, quoted above;hÄt(Pr.hatthÅ), a hand. In Konkani we have words such asboiṇ, a sister, against standardbhain;gÄ“r, standardgharī̇, in a house;ÄmÄ«, standardÄmhÄ«, we. Here again we have agreement with north-western India. Generally speaking Marathi closely follows MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ when that differs from the Prakrits of other parts of India. Thus we have Skr.vrajati, MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«vaccai(instead ofvajjai), he goes; KonkanivotsÅ«, to go; SaurasÄ“nÄ«genhiduim, MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«ghettuá¹, to take; MarathighÄ“talá»…, taken. There is similarly both in Marathi and MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« a laxness in distinguishing between cerebral and dental letters (which again reminds us of north-western India). Thus, Skr.daÅ›ati, MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«á¸asai, he bites; M.á¸Äsaṇễto bite; Skr.dahati, MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«á¸ahai, he burns; M.á¸Ädzaṇễ, to be hot; Skr.gardabhas; ÅšaurasÄ“nÄ«gaddahÅ; HindostanigadhÄ; but MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«gaá¸á¸ahÅ; M.gÄá¸hav, an ass; and so many others. In MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« everynbecomesṇ, but in Jaina MSS. when thenwas initial or doubled it remained unchanged. A similar rule is followed regardingland the cerebralḷcommon in Vedic Sanskrit, in MSS. coming from southern India, and, according to the grammarians, also in the PiÅ›Äca dialects of the north-west. In M. a Pr. doublennorllis simplified, according to the usual rule, tonorlrespectively, with lengthening of the preceding vowel in compensation. Bothṇandḷare of frequent occurrence in M., but only as medial letters, and then only when they representṇorḷin the Pr. stage. When the letter is initial or represents a doublennorllof Pr. it is alwaysnorlrespectively, thus offering a striking testimony to the accuracy of the Jaina and southern MSS. Thus, ordinary MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rīṇa, but Jaina MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«na, M. na, not; MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« (both kinds)ghaṇÅ, M.ghaṇ, dense; MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«soṇṇaaá¹, Jainasonnaaá¹, M.sÅnē̇, gold; MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«kÄlÅ, time, southern MSS. of the samekÄlÅ, M.kÄḷ, time; MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«callai, M.tsÄlÄ“, he goes or used to go. In some of the local dialects, following the Vedic practice, we findḷwheredis employed elsewhere, as in (Berar)ghÅḷÄforghÅá¸Ä, a horse; and there are instances of this change occurring even in MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«;e.g.Skr.taá¸agaá¹, MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ«taḷÄam, M.taḷễ, a pond.
The Skr. compound consonantjñis pronounceddnyin the standard dialect, butgyin the Konkan. Thus, Skr.jñÄnaá¹becomesdnyÄnorgyÄnaccording to locality.
Declension.—Marathi and Gujarati are the only Indo-Aryan languages which have retained the three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter, of Sanskrit and Prakrit. In rural dialects of Western Hindi and of Rajasthani sporadic instances of the neuter gender have survived, but elsewhere the only example occurs in the interrogative pronoun. In Marathi the neuter denotes not only inanimate things but also animate beings when both sexes are included, or when the sex is left undecided. Thus,ghÅá¸á»…, neut., a horse, without regard to sex. In the Konkan the neuter gender is further employed to denote females below the age of puberty, as incÄ“á¸Å«, a girl. Numerous masculine and feminine words, however, denote inanimate objects. The rules for distinguishing the gender of such nouns are as complicated as in German, and must be learned from the grammars. For the most part, but not always, words follow the genders of their Skr. originals, and the abrasion of terminations in the modern language renders it impossible to lay down any complete set of rules on the subject. We may, however, say that strong bases (see below) inÄ—and these do not includetatsamas—are masculine, and that the corresponding feminine and neuter words end inÄ«andá»…respectively. Thus,mulagÄ, a son;mulagÄ«, a daughter;mulagá»…, a child of so and so. As a further guide we may say that sex is usually distinguished by the use of the masculine and feminine genders, and that large and powerful inanimate objects are generally masculine, while small, delicate things are generally feminine. In the case of some animals (as in our “horse†and “mareâ€) sex is distinguished by the use of different words;e.g.bÅkaá¸, he-goat, andśēḷī, a nanny-goat.
The nominative form of atadbhavaword is derived from the nominative form in Sanskrit and Prakrit, buttatsamawords are generally borrowed in the form of the Sanskrit crude base. Thus, Skr. crude basemÄlin, nom. sing,mÄlÄ«; Pr. nom.mÄliÅ(mÄḷiÅ); M.mÄḷī(tadbhava), a gardener; Skr. basemati-; nom.matis; M.mati(tatsama). Sometatsamasare, however, borrowed in the nominative form, as in Skr.dhanin, nom.dhanÄ«; M.dhanÄ«, a rich man. In Prakrit the nominative singular of many masculinetatsamasended inÅ. In the Apabhraá¹Å›a stage thisÅwas weakened tou, and in modern Marathi, under the general rule, this final shortuwas dropped, the noun thus reverting as stated above to the form of the Sanskrit crude base. But in old Marathi, the short u was still retained. Thus, the SanskritÄ«Å›varas, lord, became, as a Prakrittatsama,Ä«Å›varÅ, which in Apabhraá¹Å›a took the formÄ«Å›varu. The old Marathi form was alsoÄ«Å›varu, but in modern Marathi we haveÄ«Å›var.Tadbhavasderived from Sanskrit bases inaare treated very similarly, the termination being dropped in the modern language. Thus, Skr. nom. masc.karṇas, Pr.kannÅ, M.kÄn; Skr. nom. sing. fem.khaá¹vÄ, Pr.khaá¹á¹Ä, M.khÄá¹, a bed; Skr. nom. sing. neut.gá¹›haá¹, Pr.gharaá¹, M.ghar, a house. Sometimes the Skr. nom. sing. fem. of these nouns ends inÄ«, but this makes no difference, as in Skr. and Pr.cullÄ«, M.cÅ«l, a fireplace. There is one important set of exceptions to this rule. In the articlePrakritattention is drawn to the frequent use of pleonastic suffixes, especially of -(a)ka- (masc. and neut.), -(i)kÄ(fem.). This could in Sanskrit be added to any noun, whatever the termination of the base might be. In Prakrit thekof this suffix, being medial, was elided, so that we get forms like Skr. nom. sing. masc.ghÅá¹a-kas, Pr. ghÅá¸a-Å, M. ghÅá¸Ä, a horse; Skr. nom. sing. fem. ghÅá¹i-kÄ, Pr.ghÅá¸i-Ä, M.ghÅá¸Ä«, a mare; Skr.ghÅá¹a-kaá¹, Pr.ghÅá¸a-(y)am, M.ghÅá¸e, a horse (without distinction of sex). Such modern forms made with this pleonastic suffix, and ending inÄ,Ä«orá»…are called “strong forms,†while all those made without it are called “weak forms.†As a rule the fact that a noun is in a weak or a strong form does not affect its meaning, but sometimes the use of a masculine strong form indicates clumsiness or hugeness. ThusbhÄkar(weak form) means “bread,†whilebhÄkarÄ(strong form) means “a huge loaf of bread.†The other pleonastic suffixes mentioned underPrakritare also employed in Marathi, but usually with specific senses. Thus the suffix -illa- generally forms adjectives, while -á¸a-ka- (in M. -á¸Ä, fem. -á¸Ä«, neut. -á¸á»…) implies contempt.
The synthetic declension of Sanskrit and Prakrit has been preserved in Marathi more completely than in any other Indo-Aryan language. While MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« Prakrit, like all others, passed through the Apabhraá¹Å›a stage in the course of its development, the conservative character of the language retained even in that stage some of the old pure MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« forms. In the articlePrakritwe have seen how there gradually arose a laxity in distinguishing the cases. In MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« the Sanskrit dative fell into almost entire disuse, the genitive being used in its place, while in Apabhraá¹Å›a the case terminations become worn down to -hu, -ho, -hi, -hÄ«and -hÄ, of which -hiand -hÄ«were employed for several cases, both singular and plural. There was also a marked tendency for these terminations to become confused, so that in the earliest stages of most of the modern Indo-Aryan vernaculars we find -hifreely employed for any oblique case of the singular, and -hÄ«for any oblique case of the plural. Another feature of Prakrit was the simplification of the complicated declensional system of Sanskrit by assimilating it in all cases to the declension ofa-bases, corresponding to the first and second declensions in Latin.
In the formation of the plural the Prakrit declensions are very closely followed by Marathi. We shall confine our remarks toa-bases, which may be either weak or strong forms, and of which the feminine ends sometimes inÄ, and sometimes inÄ«. In Prakrit the nom. plur. of these nouns ends masc.Ä, fem.ÄÅ,Ä«Å, neut.Äiá¹. We thus get the following:—
Several of the old synthetic cases have survived in Marathi, especially in the antique form of the language preserved in poetry. Most of them have fallen into disuse in the modern prose language. We may note the following, some of which have preserved the MÄhÄrÄá¹£á¹rÄ« forms, while others are directly derived from the Apabhraá¹Å›a stage of the language. We content ourselves with giving some of the synthetic cases of one noun, a weak neuter a-base, ghar, a house.
As already stated, in Prakrit the genitive is employed instead of the dative, and thus forms the basis of the Marathi dative singular. The genitive plural is not used as a dative plural in Marathi, but it is the basis of the plural general oblique case. The Marathi singular general oblique case is really the same as the Marathi dative singular, but in the standard form of speech when so used the finalsis dropped,gharÄs, as a general oblique case, being only found in dialects. This general oblique case is the result of the confusion of the various oblique cases originally distinguished in Sanskrit and in literary Prakrit. In Apabhraá¹Å›a the genitive began to usurp the function of all the other cases. It is obvious that if it were regularly employed in so indeterminate a sense, it would give rise to great confusion. Hence when it was intended to show clearly what particular case was meant, it became usual to add, to this indeterminate genitive, defining particles corresponding to the English “of,†“to,†“from,†“by,†&c., which, as in all Indo-Aryan languages they follow the main word, are called “postpositions.†Before dealing with these, it will be convenient to give the modern Marathi synthetic declension of the commoner forms of nouns. The only synthetic case which is now employed in prose is the dative, and this can always be formed from the general oblique case by adding an s to the end of the word. It is therefore not given in the following table.
The usual postpositions are:—
Instrumental:ná»…, pluralnī̃, by. Dative:lÄ, plural alsonÄ, to or for. Ablative:hÅ«n,Å«n, from. Genitive:tsÄ, of. Locative:~t, in. We thus get the following complete modern declension ofghar, a house (neut.):—
The accusative is usually the same as the nominative, but when definiteness is required the dative is employed instead. The terminationná»…, with its pluralnī̃, is, as explained in the articleGujarati, really the oblique form, by origin a locative, of thenÄornÅ, employed in Gujarati to form the genitive. The suffixnÄof the dative plural is derived from the same word. Here it is probably a corruption of the Apabhraá¹Å›anÄuornaho. The postposition lÄ is probably a corruption of the SanskritlÄbhÄ“, Apabhraá¹Å›alahi, for the benefit (of). As regards the ablative, we have in old Marathi poetry a form corresponding togharÄhu-niyẫ, which explains the derivation.GharÄhuis a by-form of the Prakrit synthetic ablativegharÄu, to whichniyÄ, another oblique form ofnÄ, is added to define the meaning. The locative termination~tis a contraction of the Pr.antÅ, Skr. antar, within.
The genitivegharÄtsÄis really an adjective meaning “belonging to the house,†and agrees in gender, number and case with the noun which is possessed. Thus:
mÄḷyÄtsÄ ghÅá¸Ä, the gardener’s horse.mÄḷyÄcÄ“ ghÅá¸Ä“, the gardener’s horses.mÄḷyÄcÄ« ghÅá¸Ä«, the gardener’s mare.mÄḷyÄcyÄ ghÅá¸yÄ, the gardener’s mares.mÄḷyÄcá»… ghÅá¸á»…, the gardener’s horse (neut.).mÄḷyÄcī̃ ghÅá¸Ä«, the gardener’s horses (neut.).
mÄḷyÄtsÄ ghÅá¸Ä, the gardener’s horse.mÄḷyÄcÄ“ ghÅá¸Ä“, the gardener’s horses.
mÄḷyÄcÄ« ghÅá¸Ä«, the gardener’s mare.mÄḷyÄcyÄ ghÅá¸yÄ, the gardener’s mares.
mÄḷyÄcá»… ghÅá¸á»…, the gardener’s horse (neut.).mÄḷyÄcī̃ ghÅá¸Ä«, the gardener’s horses (neut.).
The suffixtsÄ,cÄ«,cá»…, is derived from the Sanskrit suffixtyakas, Pr.caÅ, which is used in much the same sense. In Sanskrit it may be added either to the locative or to the unmodified base of the word to which it is attached, thus,ghÅá¹akÄ“-tyakasorghÅá¹aka-tyakas. Similarly in Marathi, while it is usually added to the general oblique base, it may also be added to the unmodified noun, in which case it has a more distinctly adjectival force. The use oftsÄhas been influenced by the fact that the Sanskrit wordká¹›tyas, Pr.kiccaÅ, also takes the same form in Marathi. As explained in the articleHindostani, synonyms of this word are used in other Indo-Aryan languages to form suffixes of the genitive.7
Strong adjectives, including genitives, can be declined like substantives, and agree with the qualified noun in gender, number and case. When the substantive is in an oblique case, the adjective is put into the general oblique form without any defining postposition, which is added to the substantive alone. Weak adjectives are not inflected in modern prose, but are inflected in poetry. As in other Indo-Aryan languages, comparison is effected by putting the noun with which comparison is made in the ablative case.
The pronouns closely follow the Prakrit originals. The origin of all these is discussed in the articleHindostani, and the account need not be repeated here. As usual in these languages, there is no pronoun of the third person, its place being supplied by the demonstratives. The following are the principal pronominal forms:—
mī̃, I, instr.mī̃,myÄ, dat.malÄ, obl.madz;ÄmhÄ«, we, instr.Ämhī̃, obl.Ämhẫ;mÄdzhÄ, my, of me;ÄmtsÄ, our, of us.
tū̃, thou, instr.tū̃,twÄ, dat.tulÄ, obl.tudz;tumhÄ«, you, instr.tumhī̃, obl.tumhẫ;tudzhÄ, thy, of thee;tumtsÄ, your, of you.
Äpan, self, obl.Äpaṇa, gen.ÄpalÄ. This is also employed as an honorific pronoun of the second person, and, in addition, to mean “we including you.â€
hÄ, this, fem.,hÄ«, neut.há»…;tÅ, he, that, fem.tÄ«, neut.tá»…;dzÅ, who, fem.,jÄ«, neut.já»….
kÅṇ, who?kÄy, what? obl.kÄÅ›a;kÅṇī, any one;kẫhÄ«, anything.
In all these the plural is employed honorifically instead of the singular.
Conjugation.—In Prakrit (q.v.) the complicated system of Sanskrit conjugation had already disappeared, and all verbs fell into two classes, the first, ora-, conjugation, and the second, orē-, conjugation, in which theērepresents theayaof the Sanskrit tenth conjugation and of causal and denominative verbs. Marathi follows Prakrit in this respect and has two conjugations. The first, corresponding to the Prakrita-class, as a rule consists of intransitive verbs, and the second, corresponding to thee- or causal class, of transitive verbs, but there are numerous exceptions. Verbs whose roots end in vowels or inhbelong partly to one and partly to the other conjugation. These conjugations differ only in the present and past participles and in the tenses formed from them. Here, in the first conjugation ana, and in the second conjugation ani, is inserted between the base and the termination.
The only original Prakrit tenses which have survived in Marathi are the present and the imperative. The present has lost its original meaning and is now a habitual past. It is also the base of the Marathi future. These three tenses, the habitual past, the imperative and the future, are conjugated as follows. They should be compared with the corresponding forms in the articlePrakrit. The verb selected is the rootuá¹h, rise, of the first conjugation.
As in Rajasthani, Bihari and the Indo-Aryan language of Nepal (seePahari), the future is formed by addingl, or in the first person singularn, to the old present. In the second person singular thelhas been added to a form derived from the Pr.uá¹á¹hasi, which is also the origin of the old presentuá¹hÄ“s. Some scholars, however, see inuá¹haśīa derivation of the Prakrit futureuá¹á¹hihisi, thou shalt arise, and a confusion of the Prakrit present and future is quite possible.
The remaining tenses are modern forms derived from the participles. The verbal nouns, participles and infinitives are as follows:—
The only form that requires notice is that of the conjunctive participle. It is derived from the Apabhrará¹Å›a formuá¹á¹hiu, to which the dative suffixn(old Marathini,niyẫ) has been added.
Various tenses are formed by adding personal suffixes to the present, past or future passive participle. When the subject of the verb is in the nominative the tense so formed agrees with it in gender, number and person. We may note four such tenses: a present,uá¹hatÅ̃, I rise; a past,uá¹halÅ̃, I rose; past conditional,uá¹hatÅ̃, had I risen; and a subjunctive,uá¹hÄwÄ, I should rise. In the present, the terminations are relics of the verb substantive, and in the other tenses of the personal pronouns. In these latter, as there is no pronoun of the third person, the third persons have no termination, but are simply the unmodified participle. We thus get the present and the past conjugated as follows, with a masculine subject:—
The feminine and neuter forms differ from the above: thus,uá¹hatÄ“s, thou (fem.) risest;uá¹halÄ«s, thou (fem.) didst rise; and so on for the other persons and for the neuter.
It will be observed that, in the case of transitive verbs, while the present participle is active, the past and future passive participles are passive in meaning. The same is the case with the future passive participle of the intransitive verb. In tenses, therefore, formed from these participles the sentence must be construed passively. The subject must be put into the instrumental case, and the participle inflected to agree with the object. If the object is not expressed, or, as is sometimes the case, is expressed in the guise of a kind of ethic dative, the participle is construed impersonally, and is employed in the neuter form. Thus (present tense)mulagÄ(nom. masc.)pÅthÄ«vÄcitÅ, the boy reads a book, but (past tense)mulagyÄná»…(instrumentalpÅthÄ«(nom. fem.)vÄcilÄ«(fem.) the boy read a book, literally, by-the-boy a-book was-read; ormulagyÄná»… pÅthÄ«lÄ(dative)vÄcilá»…(neuter), the boy read the book, literally, by-the-boy, with-reference-to-the-book, it-(impersonal)-was-read. Similarly in the subjunctive formed from the future passive participle,mulagyÄná»… pÅthÄ« vÄcÄwÄ«, the boy should read a book (by-the-boy a-book is-to-be-read) ormulagyÄná»… pÅthÄ«lÄ vÄcÄwá»…, the boy should read the book [by-the-boy with-reference-to-the-book, it (impersonal)-is-to-be-read]. As an example of the subjunctive of an intransitive verb, we havetwÄ uá¹hÄwá»…, by-thee it-is-to-be-risen, thou shouldst rise. As in intransitive verbs the passive sense is not so strong, in their case the tense may also be used actively, as intū̃ uá¹hÄwÄs, thou shouldst rise,lit., thou (art) to-be-risen. It will be noted that when a participle is used passively it takes no personal suffix.
We have seen that the present tense is formed by compounding the present participle with the verb substantive. Further tenses are similarly made by suffixing, without compounding, various tenses of the verb substantive to the various participles. ThusmÄ« uá¹hat Ähá»…, I am rising;mÄ« uá¹hat hÅtÅ̃, I was rising;myÄ uá¹hÄvá»… hÅtá»…(impersonal construction), I should have risen. In the case of tenses formed from the past participle, the auxiliary is appended, not to the participle, but to the past tense, as inmī̃ uá¹halÅ̃ ÄhÄ“, I have risen;myÄ mÄrilÄ ÄhÄ“(personal passive construction) ormyÄ mÄrilá»…ÄhÄ“ (impersonal passive construction), I have killed. SimilarlymÄ« uá¹halÅ̃ hÅtÅ̃(active construction), I had risen. The usual forms of the present and past of the verb substantive are:—
The past changes for gender, but the present is immutable in this respect.Ahá»…is usually considered to be a descendant of the Sanskritasmi, I am,8whilehÅtÅ̃is derived from the Pr.hoá¹taÅ, the present participle of what corresponds to the Skr. rootbhÅ«, become.
A potential passive and a causal are formed by addingavto the root of a simple verb. The former follows the first, or intransitive, and the latter the second or transitive conjugation. The potential passive of a neuter verb is necessarily construed impersonally. The causal verb denotes indirect agency; thus,karaná»…, to do,karavaná»…, to cause a person to do;tyÄcyÄ-kaá¸Å«n myÄ tá»… karavilá»…, I caused him to do that, literally, by-means-of-him by-me that was-caused-to-be-done. The potential, being passive, has the subject in the dative (cf. Latinmihi est ludendum) or in the instrumental of the genitive, as inmalÄ(dative), ormÄjhyÄná»…(instr. ofmÄdzhÄ, of me),uthavatē̃, I can rise, literally, for-me, or by-my-(action), rising-can-be-done. So,RÄmÄlÄ, orRÄmÄcyÄná»…,pÅthÄ« vÄcavalÄ«, RÄm could read a book (by R. a book could be read).
Several verbs are irregular. These must be learnt from the grammars. Here we may mentionhÅṇễ, to become, past participledzhÄlÄ;yēṇễ, to come, past participleÄlÄ; anddzÄṇễ, to go, past participlegÄ“lÄ. There are also numerous compound verbs. One of these, making a passive, is formed by conjugating the verbdzÄṇễ, to go, with the past participle of the principal verb. Thus,mÄrilÄ dzÄtÅ, he is being killed, literally, he goes killed.
Literature.—As elsewhere in India, the modern vernacular literature of the Maratha country arose under the influence of the religious reformation inaugurated by RÄmÄnuja early in the 12th century. He and his followers taught devotion to a personal deity instead of the pantheism hitherto prevalent. The earliest writer of whom we have any record is NÄmdÄ“v (13th century), whose hymns in honour of Vithoba, a personal form of Vishnu, have travelled far beyond the home of their writer, and are even found in the SikhÀdi Granth. DnyÄnÅbÄ, a younger contemporary, wrote a paraphrase of the SanskritBhagavad GÄ«tÄ, which is still much admired. Passing over several intermediate writers we come to the period of the warrior Sivaji, the opponent of Aurangzeb. He was a disciple of RÄmdÄs (1608-1681), who exercised great influence over him, and whoseDÄsbÅdh, a work on religious duty, is a classic. Contemporary with RÄmdÄs and Sivaji was TukÄrÄm (1608-1649), a Śūdra by caste, and yet the greatest writer in the language. He began life as a petty shopkeeper, and being unsuccessful both in his business and in his family relations, he abandoned the world and became a wandering ascetic. HisAbhangsor “unbroken†hymns, probably so called from their indefinite length and loose, flowing metre, are famous in the country of his birth. They are fervent, but though abounding in excellent morality, do not rise to any great height as poetry. Other Marathi poets who may be mentioned are ÅšrÄ«dhar (1678-1728), the most copious of all, who translated theBhÄgavata PurÄna, and the learned MayÅ«ra or MÅrÅpant (1729-1794), whose works smell too much of the lamp to satisfy European standards of criticism. MahÄ«pati (1715-1790) was an imitator of TukÄrÄm, but his chief importance rests on the fact that he collected the popular traditions about national saints, and was thus the author of theActa sanctorumof the Marathas. LÄvaṇīs, or erotic lyrics, by various writers, are popular, but are often more passionate than decent. Another branch of Marathi literature is composed ofPÄwÄá¸Äsor war-ballads, mostly by nameless poets, which are sung everywhere throughout the country. There is a small prose literature, consisting of narratives of historical events (the so-calledBakhars), moral maxims and popular tales.
In the 19th century the facilities of the printing press are responsible for a great mass of published matter. Most of the best works have been written in English by learned natives, upon whom the methods of European scholarship have exercised more influence than elsewhere in India, and have given rise to a happy combination of western science with Oriental lore. No vernacular authors of outstanding merit have appeared during the last century.
Konkani once had a literature of its own, which is said to have been destroyed by the Inquisition at Goa. Temples and manuscripts were burnt wholesale. Under Roman Catholic auspices a new literature arose, the earliest writer being an Englishman, Thomas Stephens (Thomaz Estevão), who came to Goa in 1579, wrote the first Konkani grammar, and died there in 1619. Amongst other works, he was the author of a Konkani paraphrase of the New Testament in metrical form, which has been several times reprinted and is still a favourite work with the native Christians. Since his time there has grown up a considerable body of Christian literature from the pens of Portuguese missionaries and native converts.
Authorities.—Marathi is fortunate in possessing the best dictionary of any modern Indian language, J. T. Molesworth’s (2nd ed., Bombay, 1857). Navalkar’s (3rd ed., Bombay, 1894) is the best grammar. The earliest students of Marathi were the Portuguese, who were familiar only with the language as spoken on the coast,i.e.with the standard dialect of the northern Konkan and with Konkani. They have since devoted themselves to these two forms of speech. For the former, reference may be made to theGrammatica da lingua Concani no dialecto do norte, by J. F. da Cunha Rivara (Goa, 1858). For Konkani proper, see A. F. X. Maffei’sGrammar(Mangalore, 1882) andDictionaries(ibid., 1883). These are in English. Monsenhor S. R. Dalgado is the author of aKonkan-Portuguese Dictionary(Bombay, 1893).
For further information regarding Marathi in general, see the list of authorities underIndo-Aryan Languages. For accounts of Marathi literature, see the preface to Molesworth’sDictionary; also J. Murray Mitchell’s “The Chief Marathi Poets†inTransactions of the Congress of Orientalists, London, 1892, i. 282 sqq., and ch. viii. of M. G. Ranade’sRise of the Maratha Power(Bombay, 1900). For Konkani literature, see J. Gerson da Cunha’s “Materials for the History of Oriental Studies among the Portuguese,†in theProceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Orientalists, ii. 179 sqq. (Florence, 1881). A full account of Marathi, given in great detail, will be found in vol. vii. of theLinguistic Survey of India(Calcutta, 1905).